Chapter 18: Life and Death are Fated, Wealth and Honor are Up to Heaven

The sky grew increasingly dim, and piles of bonfires were lit in Hexi Fortress, creating a very lively atmosphere.

Today’s victory in battle somewhat dispelled the gloom of the Battle of the Northern Mountains from people’s hearts, and everyone had a few more smiles on their faces.

Women gathered firewood, while men selected several of the most severely injured horses and began to display their knife skills.

Among the warhorses captured this time, more than twenty were injured, and several had even died directly.

If they could be healed, they would certainly do their best to treat them, but if not, they could only give these horses a quick end.

Neigh~

Under the burning bonfire, the miserable neighing of horses rang out.

Chen Erqiang raised his knife and dropped it, directly slitting the throat of a severely injured horse.

Blood gushed out instantly. Fortunately, someone was already waiting below with a wooden basin to catch the horse blood.

This was also good stuff!

For the Han people of Hexi Fortress, nothing edible could be wasted.

This horse blood would be made into blood sausages and stored to eat slowly later.

“Erqiang hasn’t lost his skill in killing horses~” Li Dashan praised.

Erqiang laughed: “If it were killing Karluk beasts, I would be even cleaner and quicker!”

A group of men talked and laughed as they worked together, and soon a warhorse was dismembered into pieces of meat.

Nothing would be wasted; even the horse hide would be sun-dried and made into leather armor!

Although the defense of horse hide armor was not as good as cowhide armor, it was better than nothing.

An hour later, pots of steaming horse meat were cooked.

Tonight, the whole village was having a feast!

Regardless of age or gender, regardless of whether they participated in today’s battle.

Everyone counted, all came to the village entrance to eat horse meat, enough for everyone!

Soon, Dahu and Erhu each held a big thigh bone, gnawing on it directly.

The battle earlier had consumed a lot of their stamina, and they were already starving.

And this was the horse captured from the Karluks; eating their horse felt like eating the Karluks’ flesh. The two boys ate with particular gusto.

This was the first time since learning the news of Li Da Hai’s death that smiles appeared on their faces.

“Brother, you’ve become the Fortress Lord. Grandpa won’t be able to control me anymore, haha~” After swallowing a large mouthful of horse meat, Erhu suddenly chuckled.

Saying that, he cast a glance at Dahu on the other side: “Dahu, in the future, us brothers can do whatever we want!”

Dahu was also chuckling lightly, but not as smugly as Erhu. He shook his head and said: “Do whatever you want yourself, don’t drag me into it!”

As he spoke, he even glanced at the Old Master sitting in the distance talking to a group of old men.

“You’re really boring~”

Erhu shook his head, not continuing this topic, but pestering Li Xiao instead: “Brother, have you thought about how to seek revenge on the Karluks?”

“No!” Li Xiao said.

Compared to Erhu’s fierce roughness, Li Xiao appeared more refined. He used a knife to cut the horse meat into small pieces before putting them into his mouth.

To be honest, it didn’t taste good; very tough!

Mainly because spices in this era were limited, they certainly couldn’t make the delicious food of later generations!

“Even just for spices, I must go to India to plunder a few times in the future. Moreover, those Indians also like to hide gold in temples~” Li Xiao thought secretly.

If there was a chance, he would definitely conquer the South Asian subcontinent and turn all those Indians into his subject.

Doing nothing else but growing grain, spices, and cotton.

But seeing his absent-minded look, Erhu got anxious: “How can you not have thought about it?”

Then he said viciously: “The Karluks killed our dad. These hundred heads are definitely not enough.”

“It would be best to kill all the Karluks in the entire Jin Prefecture cleanly.”

Looking at Erhu’s murderous appearance, Li Xiao understood in his heart that this kid might become a butcher that made foreign tribes pale at the mention of him in the future.

This kid would definitely kill quite a few people later on~

But there was nothing bad about this!

Li Xiao shook his head, looked at Erhu, and said calmly: “How can the Karluk rebel army be so easy to kill? This time we were just lucky to kill a hundred.”

“But the Karluk rebel army in Jin Prefecture totals more than three thousand people. Relying on Hexi Fortress alone definitely won’t work. Let’s wait until Third Grandpa contacts other villages!”

Right now, the most important thing was to gather intelligence, investigate the specific situation of the Karluks, contact other Han villages, and then wait for an opportunity to strike at the Karluks.

Fighting wars couldn’t rely solely on hot-headedness and blindly rushing in!

Li Xiao didn’t want to trade the lives of Hexi Fortress people for Karluk lives.

“Anyway, when the time comes, I definitely want to be the vanguard!” After listening to Li Xiao, Erhu huffed.

Having experienced today’s battle, Erhu believed he had also transformed. Next time he met Karluks, he could kill at least ten!

This gathering in Hexi Fortress was to celebrate the victory of killing one hundred Karluk rebels, and even more so to celebrate Li Xiao becoming the Lord of Hexi Fortress.

From now on, Li Xiao would face the turbulent vortex of Jin Prefecture directly.

No one would shield him from the wind and rain anymore; he himself would become that umbrella.

It wasn’t until the Hai hour (9-11 PM), about to enter late night, that the villagers of Hexi Fortress gradually dispersed and went home!

Soon, Li Xiao’s family returned home, but three strangers followed them back.

It was Xiao Yanyan and her two guards.

“You’ll have to suffer staying in the village for a few days. Conditions are not good, please bear with it.” Li Xiao dismounted and tied the young mare he rode into the stable.

Then he went to gather the other horses driven into the yard.

In addition to the nineteen Karluks killed by Li Xiao, the Old Master also killed three people, obtaining three good horses, as well as several curved sabers and bows.

Dahu and Erhu combined killed two Karluk cavalrymen, also each getting a horse, a saber, bow, and arrows!

A total of thirty horses plus a large number of other weapons.

It could be said that this harvest alone almost caught up with all the original assets of Li Xiao’s family.

The previous stable was definitely not enough. Li Xiao and the other two would have to hurriedly build a simple horse pen later.

“It’s okay, I’m not that particular!” Xiao Yanyan walked into the yard and smiled frankly.

The princesses of Western Liao were different from the princesses of the Central Plains.

Xiao Yanyan lived in a tent just like other herdsmen, smelling horse dung too, at most eating and dressing a bit better.

Moreover, Xiao Yanyan didn’t live too well in her childhood and didn’t have the treatment a princess should have at all. It wasn’t until her brother rose step by step later that her life became easier.

So, the living conditions of Hexi Fortress were completely acceptable to Xiao Yanyan.

However, what surprised Xiao Yanyan was that an Eight Immortals table was placed in front of the house door. On the table was a spirit tablet and other offerings.

Looking around the yard, it was clearly decorated as a mourning hall.

This scene instantly gave Xiao Yanyan the creeps.

She wasn’t afraid of hardship, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t afraid of ghosts!

“Li Xiao, this is?” Xiao Yanyan’s steps instantly stopped in front of the main gate, looking at Li Xiao somewhat unnaturally.

“My dad” Li Xiao said very frankly.

He didn’t look at her but continued to tie one horse after another temporarily to the railings in the yard.

“Died in the Northern Mountains a few days ago”

Li Xiao said in a calm tone, while Dahu and Erhu slowly stopped their work and looked at the three of Xiao Yanyan’s group in unison.

They wouldn’t forget that it was precisely because of that Khitan governor-general’s chaotic command that led to the failure of the war.

In the end, he even deceived Li Da Hai to block the pursuers while he ran away first.

It could be said that Li Da Hai’s death was entirely caused by that Dahe Chuluoduo.

Consequently, they looked at Khitans like Xiao Yanyan with great displeasure.

Li Xiao didn’t explain much about this situation.

Xiao Yanyan didn’t know; otherwise, she would have dared even less to enter the Li family’s gate.

“Uh”

“That is truly regrettable” Xiao Yanyan said softly with embarrassment.

In her heart, she cursed Dahe Chuluoduo again; he was simply not a decent thing.

Trash!

Fortunately, apart from the two guards beside her, no one in Hexi Fortress knew about her relationship with Dahe Chuluoduo.

Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t dare stay in Hexi Fortress for another moment.

The villagers of Hexi Fortress didn’t care if you were a governor-general or a princess; if there was a grudge, they would take revenge.

The Western Liao Royal Court was more than two thousand li away, and even the Eastern Capital was eight hundred li from here. Its control over the grassroots fortresses in Jin Prefecture was actually very limited.

If the Han people of Hexi Fortress were provoked, at worst they would rebel against Western Liao and defect to the Naimans.

“Nothing regrettable. Life and death are fated, wealth and honor are up to Heaven!”

“In this place, the lives of ordinary people aren’t worth anything”

Saying that, Li Xiao put down the work in his hands, turned to Xiao Yanyan in front of the door, and said: “Let’s go, I’ll take you to where you’ll stay.”

After speaking, Li Xiao walked out of the courtyard gate, while Xiao Yanyan followed behind, seeming to still ponder Li Xiao’s words just now.

“Life and death are fated, wealth and honor are up to Heaven? What does this mean?” Xiao Yanyan asked in confusion.

Although she knew Chinese, it was limited to the level of listening and speaking vernacular.

For slightly more complex vocabulary like this, she didn’t quite understand the meaning.

Li Xiao’s steps slowed down. He turned to Xiao Yanyan with a faint smile, curling the corner of his mouth and said: “It means: whoever dares to provoke me, I will kill his whole family, exterminate his entire clan, and won’t even spare his family’s dog.”

“There’s nothing to fear about death; just do it!”

After speaking, Li Xiao chuckled, turned around, and continued walking forward.

Xiao Yanyan was stunned on the spot, obviously surprised by Li Xiao’s words.

Openly saying he would kill someone’s whole family and exterminate their entire clan?

Are these Han people in Jin Prefecture so savage?

Li Xiao and other Han people in Hexi Fortress gave Xiao Yanyan a feeling completely different from the Han people she saw in the Royal Court.

More tough, more crude!

In front of Li Xiao, Xiao Yanyan felt that she, a Khitan, was simply weak. The Jin Prefecture Han people seemed more like ‘barbarians’.

“Hmph hmph, trying to scare me~” Xiao Yanyan shook her head and smiled forcibly.

She habitually raised her neck, displaying her confidence and arrogance, like a competitive white swan.

But this young man Li Xiao indeed gave Xiao Yanyan a different kind of freshness.

Crude, savage, uninhibited~

(End of this chapter)